What Is Collaborative Care (CoCM)?
Collaborative Care is an evidence-based model that integrates behavioral health directly into primary care. Instead of referring patients out and hoping they follow through, your team manages behavioral health conditions — like depression and anxiety — inside the primary care setting, supported by a Behavioral Health Care Manager (BHCM) and a consulting psychiatrist. Research consistently shows it improves outcomes and reaches patients who would otherwise fall through the cracks.
How Does Cabana's CoCM Program Work?
Cabana is a turnkey CoCM program — we integrate seamlessly into your clinic without disrupting your existing workflows. We provide the Behavioral Health Care Manager and Psychiatric Consultant, handle all program infrastructure, and work directly with your billing team to ensure full compliance with your practice's standards and regulations. Our documentation and billing processes are already built with those requirements in mind.
What Is the PCP's Role in CoCM?
The PCP remains the leader of the patient's care team — that doesn't change. What changes is that they're no longer managing behavioral health needs alone. The PCP continues to oversee the patient's overall health and prescribe medications, but is now supported by a BHCM who handles day-to-day behavioral health management, follow-up, and brief therapeutic interventions. CoCM enhances the PCP's role; it doesn't add to their burden.
What Does Cabana Actually Provide?
Cabana provides three things your practice doesn't have to build: a Behavioral Health Care Manager (recruited, trained, and managed by Cabana; on-site when space is available); a Psychiatric Consultant (available for caseload review and clinical guidance; no separate contract needed); and platform, registry, and billing support (patient tracking, outcome measurement, documentation, and billing workflow infrastructure).
Does My Practice Have to Hire Anyone?
No. Cabana provides the care manager capacity. You don't post a job, conduct interviews, or manage the hire. The BHCM works within your practice as a clinical partner — supervised by Cabana, coordinated with your team.
Why On-Site Instead of Virtual?
We believe a warm handoff is essential. When a PCP can walk a patient down the hall to meet the BHCM in person, engagement rates climb significantly compared to a virtual referral or an outside appointment. That relationship — built in the same space where the patient already feels comfortable — is what keeps people connected to care. We place our BHCMs on-site whenever your practice has space to accommodate them.
How Does Billing Work?
Billing runs through the PCP, not the BHCM. CoCM is designed to enhance the care your practice is already providing — it does not pull billing away from your providers or compete with existing revenue streams. Your practice bills Medicare and Medicaid directly using established Collaborative Care reimbursement codes. Before launch, we work with your billing department to confirm that CoCM codes are included within your existing contracts. From there, Cabana handles the documentation infrastructure, registry, and workflow support to ensure your encounters meet billing criteria and are fully documented — your team does the billing, we make sure the work is billable. No prior experience with CoCM billing is required.
Is There a Cost to My Practice?
There is no upfront cost to pilot practices. Cabana supports your team in standing up a new CMS reimbursement stream. Our support is structured as a revenue share, not a fee — the program is designed to generate net new revenue for your practice.
How Long Does It Take to Get Started?
Pilot implementations typically take 60–90 days from agreement to first patient. Cabana manages care manager placement, workflow integration, EMR setup, and registry configuration. Your team's lift during onboarding is minimal — we do the heavy work.
What Types of Practices Are a Good Fit?
Cabana works with primary care practices of all sizes, including FQHCs, independent physician groups, rural health clinics, and specialty practices. The best-fit practices are those seeing patients with unmet behavioral health needs who want a structured, sustainable way to address them inside the visit — not through referral alone.
We Already Have a Behavioral Health Team. Does CoCM Compete With That?
No — it complements it. Your existing behavioral health team handles complex or specialty cases. CoCM addresses the large volume of patients who need support but never make it to a referral. Think of it as primary care-level behavioral health: PHQ-9 tracking, brief interventions, medication management in collaboration with your providers. Your BH team becomes the step-up pathway, not the front door.
What If I'm an OB-GYN Practice?
CoCM is a strong fit for OB-GYN. Perinatal mental health — including postpartum depression screening and follow-through — is one of the highest-impact applications of the model. Cabana has experience helping practices build a systematic, billable perinatal behavioral health workflow.
Where Is Cabana Currently Operating?
Cabana is currently launching in Louisiana. If you're outside Louisiana, we'd still love to connect — we're building our expansion pipeline now and want to understand where the need is greatest.
How Do I Learn More or Explore a Pilot?
Reach out to our partnerships team. We'll start with a 20-minute conversation to understand your practice's needs and determine whether a pilot is a good fit — no commitment required.
